Tonalism

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 42. Chapters: James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Edward Mitchell Bannister, George Inness, Theodore Lukits, Leon Dabo, California Tonalism, Joseph Allworthy, Theodore Scott-Dabo, Xavier Martínez, San Francisco Art Association, Tonal Impressionism, Anne Brigman, Dwight William Tryon, Arthur Frank Mathews, Granville Redmond, Henry Ward Ranger, Jack Cassinetto, Dorian Allworthy, Charles Warren Eaton, Angel De Cora, Henry Farrer, Willis Seaver Adams, Percy Gray, Thomas Dewing, Max Meldrum, Bruce Porter, Jean Charles Cazin, Joseph DeCamp, Bruce Crane. Excerpt: James Abbott McNeill Whistler (July 10, 1834 - July 17, 1903) was an American-born, British-based artist. Averse to sentimentality and moral allusion in painting, he was a leading proponent of the credo "art for art's sake". His famous signature for his paintings was in the shape of a stylized butterfly possessing a long stinger for a tail. The symbol was apt, for it combined both aspects of his personality-his art was characterized by a subtle delicacy, while his public persona was combative. Finding a parallel between painting and music, Whistler titled many of his paintings "arrangements", "harmonies", and "nocturnes", emphasizing the primacy of tonal harmony. His most famous painting is Whistler's Mother (1871), the revered and oft parodied portrait of motherhood. Whistler influenced the art world and the broader culture of his time with his artistic theories and his friendships with leading artists and writers. James Abbott Whistler was born in Lowell, Massachusetts. He was the first child born to Anna Matilda McNeill and George Washington Whistler, a prominent engineer. She was his father's second wife. At the Ruskin trial (see below), Whistler claimed the more exotic St. Petersburg, Russia as his birthplace: "I shall be born when and where I want, and I do not choose to be born in Lowell", he declared. In later years, he would play up his mother's connection to the American South and its roots, and present himself as an impoverished Southern aristocrat (although to what extent he truly sympathized with the Southern cause during the American Civil War remains unclear). After her death he would adopt her maiden name, using it as an additional middle name. Young Whistler was a moody child prone to fits of temper and insolence, who-after bouts of ill-health-often drifted into periods of laziness. His parents discovered in his early youth that drawing often settled him down and helped focus his attention. Whistler circa 1847-49Beginning in 1842, his father was emp